Creating a Happy and Organized Home

Welcome! Thanks for taking the time to visit The Confident Mom. As another busy mom, I understand that your minutes are precious - so I try to keep my posts short and to the point with parenting strategies and solutions for making your house a home. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. I would also love to have you join our mom community on Facebook and Twitter.

Hopefully you’ve managed to grab yourself a copy of the 2014 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner for FREE {and perhaps even grabbed the Supplemental kit for only $6} and are ready to tackle the New Year. I am thrilled with what you all are sharing with me on how your first week went….

LOVE the planner!! I’ve been looking forward to doing my planned “chores” each day and no longer feel like I need to do EVERYTHING EVERY DAY! I suddenly have so much more time in my day and my house is still getting taken care of Thank you so much for offering this to us for free!!

So excited! My first week of the new year with The Confident Mom Household planner was a success. Along with help from my boys, we crossed everything off the list.

Love my Confident Mom planner. I went with the free one and it’s perfect for keeping me organized. Not everything gets crossed off…but that’s okay. The world won’t end.

So how can you find happiness and success among your to-do list in the planner?

Get a Plan

Whether you print one page of the planner out a week, or print the entire contents out and put it in a binder, find a method that will work for you. No one likes to get re-organized each week – so pick a method and go with it. My method is to print the year out, take it to Staples and spiral bind it for $4. I can then write all over it and I actually will keep my previous years planners because of all the notes I’ve written on the pages. I am also a big fan of the just tell me what to do version – that is my kinda gig!

Maybe you are a print each week as you go so you can type in the editable fields kids gal – then do that. Post it on the refrigerator or place it in a notebook. I have also heard from moms that have been able to use the planner pages on their tablets –

If you have a tablet, like an iPad you can use the Weekly Household planner “paperless” with any app that allows you to “write” on a PDF – for example Notability.

On the Kindle, you can download “Note Everything” for free and use it too!

I have not done this myself, and will likely experiment with this, but if you have had success please share in the comments so you might be able to help another mom out. In addition, many have downsized the planner pages, but changing the printer settings on their printers, for example – printing two of the pages on one 8 X 11 page….if you have done that please share here too!

Give Yourself Grace

I especially love the last comment – she is right….if all the tasks do not get crossed off each day – the world won’t end! You need to be real with yourself and have realistic expectations each day {I shared a post on this last year that was very helpful} – your home is not like your friends’ home or the mom who is sharing on Facebook about how she managed to get all ten of her kids to complete the entire task list for the week in one day – you are you.

You need to realize each day is different and if you do not get it crossed off – oh well! This is a guide – not a mandate! I have placed tasks on the planner in a reasonable order and frequency to allow your home to stay picked up, tidy and in order, but if you miss a few things here and there – things will not fall apart. Just pick up the next day and move on.

You can use color coded highlighters to delegate tasks for each child – this is one way to share in the process. Allow your children to pick one task out of each day that they can help with and then when all the tasks are done, do something fun together – like a game, make a snack or get outside to ride bikes.

Working together for the better good of the whole is a great family lesson to teach at home.

Quick Tips

For many weeks on end I posted a Weekly Household Quick Tip each Monday as we ventured through the planner the past two years. If you need some inspiration, just type Weekly Household Quick Tip in the search bar in the upper right corner and get some encouragement or find a tip for a certain task listed in the planner. Need a natural Laundry Rinse that is inexpensive and easy to use, how about some ideas on how to begin your quiet time routine, or cleaning the garage? There is a lot of great information buried in these pages – just type a search word and phrase and hit go!

Love the free planner and even got the supplemental one as well as a busy mom need to stay focused and prepared for anything.

http://www.theconfidentmom.com Susan

Wonderful – I pray it blesses you and your family to a more organized year!

Leslie L

I wanted you to know how much your planner has helped this ADHD mom! It breaks down tasks in a way that prevents that overwhelming, I-want-to-lay-down-in-a-fetal-position-and-suck-my-thumb feeling I often get when trying to tackle home organization. Such a blessing! God Bless and thanks for sharing that!

http://www.theconfidentmom.com Susan

I am so glad! I know that same feeling, some days it can seem so overwhelming with all that we have on our plate,….but when you can take the seemingly large tasks and break them down….it can all get done and in less time. When we have to think about it all the time, it is exhausting!

Tonya

Would love to use in the notability app on my ipad. Unfortunately I haven’t figured it out. But I do love the planner. Thanks for all your hardwork Susan.

http://alittlewifeshappylife.blogspot.com Little Wife

Thank you for providing this free of charge! Every little bit we can save really helps! I love the fact that the pages are editable- I can customize it a little to make it fit my home and my needs, but still just follow along!

My household planner is half-page sized, so I printed the Weekly Household planner two to a page so it fits perfectly in the planner I already have!

Do you mind if I show how I use your pages in my household binder on my blog (Of course, with a link back)?

Thank you again! I finally feel like I’m on top of things around here!

Amaryllis

This is phenomenal! Just got my download today and this will revolutionize our household. Thank you soooo very much!

Michelle

I was so excited to download and start this but my computer is down and I can’t get it to print with your tasks on it every day from my iPhone. I’m very discouraged about this. I NEED your suggestions if what to do daily!

http://www.theconfidentmom.com Susan

I wish I could help trouble shoot – there have been other that have used iPad readers and used it on their iPads – I will try to find the information or you can look on the sales page – I put information there as well

http://www.artandother.blogspot.com Kendra

I’m on my 2nd week with your planner and I’m enjoying it alot! My husband has been encouraging me to spend a little time on myself so it helps to have that reminder every day especially. I do have to work really hard and be home all day to get everything done on the list (I have a 2.5 year old and I work part-time from home), but being able to look at the list, check something off, and move on to the next task keeps me motivated, and I have a great sense of accomplishment! I also love telling my son in the morning what chores we’ll be doing and ask him if he’d like to help with specific things. I very much appreciate the reminders to do nice social things like have coffee or write thank-you cards — that doesn’t come naturally to me! This is fun! Thank you!

http://www.theconfidentmom.com Susan

Just remember Kendra, it is OK if you do not get it all done!!!! It is a guide – just use it to your advantage, not like a noose!

Tawnya

Thank you for the planner. Every year one of my goals is to get and stay organized with household tasks. This year my goal is just to do what’s on the list for the week! A lot less pressure

Jennifer

Thank you so much for this planner!! I’ve been using it for a week now and I’m not kidding when I say it is life changing for me and my family. I’m a stay at home, homeschooling mom to 6 children from 11 months to almost 10 years old. Over the years, as we’ve added more children, my “planning time” has had to move towards homeschool planning and childcare, and away from household chores. Needless to say, I would go through exhausting housecleaning marathons that would leave me with a clean home for all of about 10 minutes, and I would become overwhelmed again. I’ve been searching for a plan that would tell me EXACTLY what to do, already planned out for me, not something that told me how to develop my own plan. Now I can just look at the tasks for the day, cross off what’s not relevant to my family, and start working on checking them off. My children have a list of their own chores they need to work on everyday. By having your planner, I can also give them tasks that I know are appropriate for them, that I had not thought of. My daughters, my little helpers, enjoy reading the task list and figuring out what they’re capable of doing to help. Most of the tasks can be completed during our morning chore time, or during the small amounts of time between activities. It’s relieved so much of the everyday stress I was feeling of creating a clean, organized home. And the best thing of all, my husband is happy to come home to a straightened up house every evening with a wife who has NOT been overwhelmed by housework!! Thank you again!!

Welcome!

The Confident Mom is a ministry dedicated to Empowering Moms, Strengthening Families and Embracing God’s design. Won't you join me in the journey? Learn more...